Carol McKay

I am from Drumchapel, Glasgow, of Scots and Irish descent. I am an experienced creative writing teacher and facilitator and former Chartered Librarian. My fiction tackles contemporary issues, e.g. isolation, abortion, alcoholism. It has been described as "hallucinatory urban realism" (Suhayl Saadi). I also write biography/memoir, and about the natural world. My short fiction and poetry have appeared in Gutter, Mslexia, From Glasgow to Saturn, Istanbul Review, Daily Telegraph, The Herald, Chapman, Cencrastus and Wasafiri.

Second Chances, my ebook on living with Addison's Disease, is published by PotHole Press. I taught creative writing through The Open University from 2004-2018 and am now particularly interested in offering fiction, poetry, and life writing workshops. I am also available to give readings of my own work and as a competition judge.

Key achievements include:

• Winner of the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship 2010
• Winner of the Booktown Writers' Short Story Competition 2012
• Magnetic North Space/Time residency 2018
• Shortlisted for the Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction 2019
• MLitt in Creative Writing, Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, 2001
• Finalist, Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition 2002

(Photo credit: Eddie Mceleney)